Comatose
by K8 the great
Summary: One day, Percy wakes up to find that his whole life as a demigod was just a coma induced dream. Struggling between reality and fiction, he remembers that everyone in you see in a dream, you must have seen in real life. But when Percy finds Annabeth, she isn't who his subconscious made her out to be. Will he be able to get his Wise Girl back? And why is Nico reading a textbook?
1. Chapter 1

So this is an AU I found on tumblr. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and wanted to write it. I hope you guys like it! I'm not sure if I'll continue this, but if I do, I won't be able to update regularly so I apologize in advance.

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 _Beep... beep... beep..._

That was all Percy could hear. A constant beep, chirping loudly in his ear. And then he opened his eyes, squinting at the light. For a moment he was disoriented, but when his gaze focused... he was still disoriented. The room he was in had blindingly white walls and a gray-painted door; where was he? This wasn't Cabin 3. Where were the blue walls, the fountain? What was going on?

Percy tried to push himself up, but his arms shook; they looked frail, as if all of his taut muscle had disappeared over night. He collapsed back onto the uncomfortable bed, only just now noticing the tube snaking out of his arm and the nubbins feeding him oxygen through the nose. What happened to him? Why wasn't he in the camp infirmary? If something so bad had happened to him, some ambrosia and nectar should have been able to fix him up just fine.

He looked around; there wasn't much to the room other than the bedside table and heart monitor. Had he been captured by Hecate and was currently being manipulated by her Mist? That had to be it. It was all an illusion. Percy concentrated hard on the walls, squinting, trying to make out a mistake anywhere, something that would give the whole facade away so he would be able to peel it off with ease. But there was nothing, no waver in the image.

Then a man in a lab coat entered the room.

"Apollo?" Percy mumbled. His voice was raspy and his tongue was like sandpaper.

Apollo's head shot up from the clipboard he was holding, his eyes widening at Percy. "You're awake!"

Percy squinted his eyes at Apollo's shock. The man rushed over to the wall and grabbed a phone. "Nurse, alert Percy Jackson's mother that he's awake, immediately. Her information is in the file for patient 1680392." He repeated the number once more and then turned to the bed. His eyes were still wide and he opened and closed his mouth before regaining the ability to speak. "Welcome back, Mr. Jackson. It's been a long time."

"Long time?" Percy wheezed. He tried to clear his throat but it was like all of the moisture had disappeared. Dehydration was a strange feeling to Percy. He was a son of Poseidon; water ran through his veins like blood. Apollo picked up the receiver once more and asked the nurse on the end of the line to bring a glass of water.

Then he said, "We'll need to run some tests, and you'll have to complete physical therapy before you're allowed back to school and all, but you've been in the best care..."

Percy stopped listening. Apollo always did ramble on, but never like this. He normally quoted Shakespeare and Dickens but now he was jotting down types of therapy he would need to complete and a nutritionist Percy should get in touch with. He knew Apollo was also the god of healing, but this was very foreign to him.

It was about ten minutes and a glass of water later- that didn't move no matter how much he concentrated; his energy must have been drained- when his mom came barreling into the room. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and suddenly she was hugging him like she hadn't seem him in years which was totally not true; he had gone home from camp just last weekend and had dinner with her and Paul...

"M-mom," he wheezed, "what's going on? What am I doing here?"

"Oh sweetie, you were in a car crash!"

A car crash? Wow. If anything would bring the downfall of a child of the Big Three, Percy would have though it would be an army of angry Titans, and even that hadn't killed him.

"That's right," Apollo said. "You were in a terrible car crash four years ago, when you were twelve. It was a terribly rainy night and you were hit by another driver. You're lucky to be alive, Mr. Jackson. You really are a fighter."

'Lucky to be alive' rung in his ears. He turned to his mom with worry. She was driving that car, she must have been. "You weren't hurt, were you?"

She cocked her head. "Do you... do you not remember that night, Percy?"

He shook his head, but a dull ache started to grow. He stopped and said, "No, not really."

Then Sally's eyes saddened. "Doctor, could you give us a minute?" she asked Apollo. He nodded and retreated from the room. "I wasn't in the car with you during the crash. Sweetie, that night, you were going to a party with Grover, that boy with the leg problem who was in his junior year. You remember him? You were very close with him. Well he was driving you two home and you got hit by another driver. He probably couldn't see through the rain. Oh, Percy, I hate to have to tell you this but- but Grover wasn't wearing a seat belt. He crashing through the windshield."

He heard the beeping of his heart monitor pick up. "W-what?"

"I'm sorry, Percy. Grover died," Sally said, and covered his hand with her own.

"No, that's impossible. He can't be; he's back at camp-"

Percy froze. Apollo said that he'd been here for four years, since he was twelve. Did that mean...?

"Camp?"

"Mom," he whispered, "where's Annabeth?"

Confusion appeared on Sally's face. "Who?"

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Leave me a comment if you want me to continue this!


	2. Chapter 2

I'd like to start with a little note; when I say at the end of the chapter to leave me a review to continue, I don't mean that I will only continue if there are reviews for my story. A guest under the pseudonym 'King of France' made a pretty rude comment directed towards me regarding this. I mean that I'd like a bit of motivation and reassurance that I'm not wasting my time with this story and people genuinely want to read more. I hope I didn't seem like I was fishing for compliments because, while they are nice to hear, that wasn't what I was going for. I really do value any input I get to my writing.

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Percy went through his physical therapy with more pain and difficulty than he could have imagined, and eventually he built up enough muscle in his legs so he was able to stand on his own again. But he did it all half-heartedly. As he went through his training, all he could think about was swordplay at camp and battling the titans. All alongside Annabeth.

But none of it was real. It had all been a figment of his imagination, inspired by the Greek Mythology unit they were doing at school. This realization had broken his heart; the dream had been so _real_. He remembered it with burning clarity and knowing that it was fake kept a frown intact on his face as he lifted five pound weights in his training.

At first when he saw them, he almost scoffed. He held up the sky when he was thirteen; five pounds was a joke, until he struggled to curl them to his chest. His stick thin arms shook violently and he had tossed the weights onto the mat- Percy stormed out of the room that day with tears of frustration streaming down his cheeks.

Sally had found him in the lobby and sat down next to him. "Percy, I know this is hard for you and it _will_ be frustrating. But you need to build up your strength. I want to see you healthy, up and about. You just have to keep in mind that you were in a coma for four years; it's not your fault if you aren't strong. You've been lying in a bed for all that time, not moving a muscle. It's going to take some time before you're back to the way you were before."

But Percy couldn't _remember_ the way he was before. It seemed that memories of Camp Half-Blood had filled his mind and confused his earlier memories too- ones of Nancy whatsherface and the fountain, the Fates, killing his monster school teacher. None of those had actually happened and they were all pre-crash.

"I know. It's just- I'm just really confused," he said.

Sally smiled, "Hey, you'll figure out how to use the iPhone 6 eventually!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "That is definitely not what I meant," he chuckled.

"I know," she said and wrapped an arm around him. "Why don't you tell me about it at home."

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Gabe wasn't real either, Percy found with relief.

As soon as he entered the apartment, he sat down with Sally and began to tell her the whole story of his coma-induced adventures as a demigod. The whole thing took about two and a half hours, because Percy wasn't about to leave out any details of his amazing (and stressful) time as the son of Poseidon.

As soon as he finished, he slumped against his mom's shoulder and asked for a glass of water. It seemed like dehydration came to him easily now.

She raised an eyebrow but got up. When she re-entered the room, water in hand, she said, "You know, it's been said that dreams are based off the subconscious. Everyone in a dream, you must have seen somewhere at some point in your life. These people were so significant in your dream; you must know them _somehow_ in real life. Maybe Annabeth is somewhere out there."

Percy's eyes widened and he sat up.

"Wait, really?" Percy said. "That's a thing?"

Sally smiled at him. "Yeah, it's a thing. Maybe, once you're ready to get back to school, you'll be able to go looking for her."

And so Percy's enthusiasm was renewed with a sense of vigor. He sat eagerly through his tutoring lesson, trying his hardest to do well so he could catch up to his age's learning level so he could go back to school so he could look for the Annabeth and the Argo II crew and _Gods, he was so excited_.

He no longer cared about the soreness from physical therapy or the eating plan they had him on; he was determined to be able to go back to school. His mom bought him some new hoodies and jeans since basically everything else he owned was too small, and he found some semi-working pens; he was prepared. He didn't care if he had to trek all over Manhattan on foot if he could find Annabeth and Frank and Piper and Jason and everyone else.

He wouldn't let the doubt crawl in. He knew that there were thousands of people in the city and that Annabeth could have easily been just someone he passed by on the streets. But someone that important in his dream must have been someone he was _at least_ acquainted with. He kept working and learning, reviewing flashcards before going to sleep and struggling through more textbooks when he woke up. The studies were long and tedious but he had a pretty good tutor (who looked suspiciously like Chiron, but he didn't say anything). Finally, after almost two whole months he was able to go back to school. It was January, a new year and Percy was so ready to find the love of his life.

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	3. Chapter 3

Hey there! Enjoy this update. I know the next one won't be up for at least another week because I have my midterm exams to study for.

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Percy wasn't nervous around people. At least, not when he was the son of Poseidon; as a kid of the Big Three, he was important and people looked up to him- people _liked_ him. But pre-crash he remembered how he was treated. Sneers and sideways glances were shot towards him, he'd shrink in on himself to avoid attention, and he regularly ate lunch in the bathroom. As a mortal, people _didn't_ like him and he didn't like them. He hoped to the Gods that some of the imagined confidence had rubbed off on him as he walked into school that fateful first day.

As soon as he stepped through the doors, the sideways glances started up almost like deja vu. People whispered and gestured towards him as he looked around for the Main Office. He'd never been in the high school before and it was obvious. Everyone was staring at him. _Deep breaths,_ he thought. _They're regular mortals, like you. No one here is going to make you a feast_.

Eventually, he found the office and walked up to the desk stationed in front. A secretary sat there, looking down her hooked nose at the computer. Percy squinted and found she bore no resemblance to any of the Gods. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

"Excuse me?" he said. "I'm Percy Jackson and I-"

The woman lifted a finger and silenced him. She loudly punched the keys, the printer hummed for a moment, and then she handed him a piece of paper.

"This is your schedule. It has all of your classes, room numbers, and your locker number and combination. Your tour guide should be here any minute. He's junior class president and he's going to give you a brief overview of the school and tell you about the clubs and teams AHS offers," the woman said. "You may take a seat while you wait."

That was all the woman said in her nasally voice. She turned her attention back to the computer and Percy took a seat on the hard wooden bench beside the door. He waited and watched the seconds tick by on the wall-mounted clock; he didn't have a phone with him to entertain himself. Stupid as it was, Percy still got paranoid about taking a phone places with him, like he was unsure if this was all a trick of the Mist and a drakon would jump out at him any moment.

One minute passed. Two.

Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Then the door opened again and suddenly a guy was smiling down at him. "You must be Percy!" It was an all too familiar face. "Welcome to AHS." Percy's breath had shortened. "You're probably going to miss most of first period while I show you around-" Percy barely heard his words anymore. "-but you'll be able to attend the rest of the day's classes." He was staring at the scar that bent and curved with the shape of the boy's mouth. "My name is Jason."

Percy stood up, trying to keep his jaw from dropping, while his mind raced. He didn't think it would be this easy. "H-hi," he said, "nice to meet you."

"You too," Jason said with a smile.

He looked exactly like his Roman friend. Blonde hair, blue eyes, glasses, all the normal stuff. There was only one thing wrong with the picture. Percy was used to seeing him in a t-shirt and shorts, maybe jeans if it was cold; instead, Jason was wearing a blue button down shirt tucked into his slacks, attire way too formal for high school. He knew that Jason was very leader-y but seriously, even a class president wouldn't come to school in what neared on a suit. Percy thought he looked like he was dressed more for a job at the office, maybe in a cubicle.

He followed half a step behind as Jason led him through the hallways. "This is the English Wing. There are three teachers for our grade. Lucky for you, you have Mrs. Hershel; she's probably the best out of all of them. My teacher is Mr. Garret; he has a tendency for snapping at the students and taking their phones away..."

The tour was utterly ordinary. Percy only half listened as Jason pointed out particular classrooms and introduced him to one of the math teachers who had the period off. He kept a small hope alive that at any second Jason would lean over and say in hushed tones, "I'm undercover. There's a child of Apollo here in danger of being turned into a demigod-kabob by the janitor."

But he never did. Jason was just a regular person and it sucked.

Then he said, "Piper, get to class."

Percy's head snapped up. Piper was sitting against a row of lockers, scribbling furiously into a notebook. She looked up from the page; her eyes flickered over to Percy. She turned to Jason. "New kid?" He nodded.

"She's here too?"

They were both staring at him with confusion in their gazes. "Um, I mean..." he stammered, "hi, I'm Percy."

"Why wouldn't I be here? What do you mean by that?" Piper said. "Do we know each other?"

"No, um, sorry," he said. "I'm just- I didn't mean to say that-"

"Then why did you?" Piper challenged.

"No reason! Ignore me."

"We're not going to have a problem are we, new kid? I don't need anything else on my record."

"Your- your _record_?"

"Yes. As in permanent record."

"Sorry, no. No, we're cool."

She narrowed her eyes and slammed her notebook shut. As she stood up, she spoke to Jason, but never took her eyes off Percy. "For the record, Mr. President," she said, "I'm not going to class because you told me. I just don't feel like dealing with any more bullshit."

The daughter of Aphrod- _Piper_ stormed off. Percy's mouth was hanging wide open as his head spun; Jason and Piper may have been the same people he knew physically, but mentally, they were completely different entities. Jason was one short step away from wearing ties casually and Piper was an angry class-skipper who wore bold eyeliner. He could only wonder what reality had done to his Annabeth.

Jason snapped him out of his reverie, saying, "Don't worry about Piper. She's all bark and no bite."

"No kidding," he mumbled.

"Yeah, I think the only thing on her permanent record is plagiarism on an essay in eighth grade."

Jason continued on down the hallway, talking about who knows what. Percy trailed behind, scuffing his feet against the hard tiled floor. Maybe he wasn't going to find what he wanted after all. Not for the first time, Percy wished that he hadn't woken up from his coma.

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How did you like it? Thoughts on Jason and Piper? Leave me a review! I accept any and all criticism :)


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